Monthly Archives: July 2012

Comments Off on Custom Character Dolls
Posted by K. Martinez on July 23, 2012

This is cross-posted from my crocheting tumblr, and that’s where the link to the Brann Bronzebeard doll post will take you.

I will be accepting orders for dolls based on your character from games like WoW, SWTOR, etc. Feel an emotional attachment to the character you’ve tanked every raid on? Maybe a roleplay character you’ve spent hours exploring the backstory of in digital taverns? If you can take screenshots of the front and back of the character, I can make a doll of them! (See the post about the Brann Bronzebeard doll as an example. I will NOT be taking orders for favorite lore characters, though. Only player characters.)

I need you to provide me with front and back screenshots of your character, plus any information like race/class/physical characteristics from roleplay not shown on the character model. (Example – a scar on a character’s face that everyone can see, but the game model doesn’t have an option for.)

Make sure your character is wearing what you want the doll to be wearing, and be sure to tell me if there are any “must have” parts. If I have to simplify things, I don’t want it to be the off-hand weapon that I leave off if you very carefully chose that off-hand weapon for the doll.

As with any other request item, your finished doll will be put in our Etsy store and reserved for you. I’ll let you know your doll is ready, and you will have one month to purchase it. Our standard shipping prices apply. ($6.00 USD within the US and Canada, $12.00 USD to anywhere else.)

The cost of a doll is $50.00 USD. If your character is of a class that has a pet (hunter/ranger companions, warlock minions, death knight ghouls, etc) you can add pets for $15.00 each. And before anyone asks – yes, shaman, I can make a set of four totems instead of a pet. :)

I will let you know when you contact me with a request how long the waiting list currently is. If this is something you need within the month (birthday, for example) please talk to me about putting a rush on your doll. I cannot put a rush on requests for a major holiday like Christmas, though.

I am not accepting requests for pets/minions/etc on their own. Only as an addition to the character. I am also not accepting requests for non-combat/vanity pets at this time. If you have any other questions about ordering dolls, please contact me.

Comments Off on Improvise, Adapt, Crochet
Posted by K. Martinez on July 17, 2012

I said I was going to make an effort to keep my crochet work divided from my other work, didn’t I? I even set up a tumblr for when I just want to babble about yarn crafting. I was determined to manage my drawing and painting in one area of my life, and the yarn crafting with my husband in another area of my life.
There’s only so much of me to go around, though, and those things all qualify as “art”. I’m finding that I can’t just set aside time to crochet and then time to draw. I get my need to create satisfied when working with yarn and there’s just nothing left by the time I’m ready to draw. I could draw one of the things on my list, but then I start thinking how much fun it would be to crochet them in addition to drawing them. I start running through how to do that in my mind, making sure I really could do it, and all the energy gets poured into the yarn crafting idea.

I need to create. I don’t actually need to draw. This shouldn’t surprise me, considering I turned to drawing when my illness made it very difficult for me to write.

I have to consider other things going on in my life, and I’ve discussed this at length with my husband and gotten some advice from a friend. If I don’t care that much which medium I’m working with as long as I’m creating, then what about other things I’m facing? How are they impacted by a change in my artistic pursuits? The truth is that crocheting is a much better choice for me at this point in my life when I consider my health problems. Everything from the physical toll from how I sit while working to the mental cost of doing this as a business changes.

Does this mean I’m giving up drawing completely? Absolutely not! I still have a few projects that are very important to me and must be drawn. I can’t imagine a time when I put down pens and Wacom stylus and think to myself, “The last one is done.” I will be keeping my stores with my artwork open. I just won’t add to them as often. I won’t aggressively pursue creative satisfaction and financial benefit through drawing. Hooks and yarn are a better choice for me at this point in my life.

Some of you may not have an interest in my work anymore with this change. I understand that. I understand that sometimes the focus is the medium. Thank you for supporting my drawing and painting.

Anyone who wants to come along for the ride on the Yarn Train, that’s where the action will be now! There’s a Craftypodes Twitter account for it, Facebook, and Google+. My husband (fondly referred to on Craftypodes accounts as “Mr. Knitter”) also posts on the Facebook and Google+ accounts. I mostly do the Twitter thing myself, and the tumblr is all mine.

A lot of my Twitter friends are gamers. I recently crocheted a Brann Bronzebeard (from World of Warcraft) doll, wearing the Tabard of the Explorer that the character sends to you in the game.

Gamer buddies, help me get my mind focused on the good things about making this change in my life! Talk to me about dolls. I’d like to know how interested people might be in being able to commission a doll of their character. It would mean sending me screenshots, front and back, of your character. Hunters could have a pet, warlocks could have a demon, etc. I’d say SWTOR characters are possible, too. Not lore characters like Brann there, but a doll of your character. If there’s a reasonable amount of interest in this, I can work out details for pricing and how to handle a waiting list for commissions and make another post specifically about that.

Creative Journeys of Kelly Martinez

Why “45 degrees off”?

We are all looking at the same world each day. Some of us see different pieces of it, and some of us are looking at the same pieces from different points of view. As an artist, I work to share my point of view in a way that allows you to see the world through my eyes, even if just for a short time. It may look like the same world you are used to seeing, but turned a little. Say... about 45 degrees off.

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All work at 45 degrees off is owned by K. Martinez unless stated otherwise. (I have been known to show fellow artists some love.) If you see something you like and want to tell others about it, go ahead and repost it with a link back to here. If you want to use my work as an illustration for a post in your blog, email me at km (dot) rosaamarilla (at) gmail (dot) com to request my permission. You may not use my work for any other purposes.